Pros Dominating 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event

In a tournament recently dominated by amateurs, brand name pros are leading the way. The 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, which comes with a pricey $10,000 buy-in, currently has a variety of pros perched atop the leaderboard after two and a half days of play. The event boats an $8.9 million top prize, which is sure to make even the wealthiest of pros smile.

Chris “herdgolf86” Tipper owns the fifth largest stack at the time of writing, which is on the dinner break during Monday’s action. Tipper, a longtime online pro, took down the Full Tilt Poker Super Sunday $500,000 Guaranteed in February 2009 for a healthy $102,000. He also final tabled a PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Second Chance event last September for $48,000. One month later, Tipper was up to his winning ways once again, breaking through in the challenging Full Tilt $1K Monday for $56,000.

Poker VT coach Nick Rainey also has a top ten stack in the 2010 WSOP Main Event after nearly three days of play, as does Robert Mizrachi. For his part, Mizrachi has been on a tear during the 2010 WSOP, recording three final tables, including a fifth place effort in the $50,000 Player’s Championship. In that tournament, his brother, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, sent him packing and went on to win the title.

Twentieth place on the leaderboard belongs to a legend, World Team Poker Team China captain Johnny Chan. Holding 10 WSOP bracelets, Chan has $4.2 million in career WSOP earnings, but hasn’t turned in a win in seven years. Chan finished third in the Tournament of Champions this year and last recorded a cash in the Main Event in 2008, when he took 329th for $32,000.

Two-time bracelet winner Scott “BigRiskky” Clements is in 17th at the Day 3 dinner break. Both of Clements’ bracelets are in Omaha events, but his wins in the 2007 World Poker Tour (WPT) North American Poker Championship and a $1,000 Circuit Event in 2005 both came in Hold’em. If Clements can continue to stay near the top of the pack, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with when the field whittles down to the final nine on July 17th.

Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy and Josh “brikdog24” Brikis are both top-tier online pros and each owns a top 20 stack in the Main Event. Joining them is UB.com’s Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, who sits at #21 on the leaderboard. Baldwin was the runner-up to newly minted PokerStars pro David Williams in the 2010 WPT Championship and captured his first bracelet last year in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event.

Among those exiting around the Day 3 winner break was Eugene Katchalov, who ran A-J into A-K on his final hand. Also departing was defending Main Event champion Joe Cada, who came out on the short end of a race with A-Q against pocket tens in his final hand. Cada picked up a flush draw on the flop in addition to his overcards, but no help came on the turn or river.

David “Devilfish” Ulliott also hit the skids on Monday. Ulliott got his money in good with A-Q against Q-6, but his opponent hit a six on the river to send the vocal European packing. Despite his fiery nature and the bad beat, official tournament coverage on WSOP.com detailed his calm departure: “The Devilfish was quite composed as he made his exit from the tournament area.”

Stay tuned to MacPoker.com for the latest from the 2010 WSOP Main Event.